I have a friend who occasionally asks: “are you this way
because you’re an engineer or are you an engineer because you’re this way?”
Good question.......
In that vein, the reason you’ve not heard from me for a bit
to recount the “trip”, is that before setting pen to paper (or fingers to
keyboard) my serial, one dimensional brain compels me to:
Unpack – put away, put stuff in wash basket or dry cleaning
pile
Finish the travel diary – collate how many miles on what
day, finish mileage and mpg calculations, keep track hours on the road, how
many plates from waht states we saw, where we slept, where and what we ate, costs
involved, etc.
Consult with MFO – filling in holes from her more lucid
memory banks
Make sure all photos are in the proper folders within
Lightroom, review them to sort of get the stories in mind….. and so forth.
So, now I can start dragging you along for our: 13 day, 11
State (plus DC), 2914 mile, MOMSTER trip that averaged 20.57 mpg ($311.54 worth
of gas), 7 bed, , numerous home cooked meals and restaurants (which will be
unfolded) journey during which I managed 540 images to regale you with.
So….bye! Oh, wait
there’s a story to tell. And we’ve had a
brief intro already about road signs and what remained the benchmark (formal) meal
of the trip.
End of Babbling, Start of (Actual) Content!
So let’s sort of pickup again by finishing our stay at FOJTE’s
in greater St. Louis.
We caught a glimpse of the “gateway” as we got into town
Checked into our hotel, relaxed, eventually going over
to FOJTE’s house for a quick dinner of (Big Green Egg Flatbreads) and cocktails
preceded by a lovely cheese board
The next day started out with coffee (under the watchful eye
of one of the denizens of the household)
And a terrific house made quiche
After that, MFO guided them through the history of my father’s
adventures and eventual wounding in France during WWI.
And while the humans showed great interest, it didn't seem to carry over to Dino and Frank
That evening, FOJTE again worked in their (soon to be remodeled) kitchen
Producing a lovely “Surf and Turf” dinner
What a lovely end to a day that brought my “Dad” back into my
memory and celebrated with a lovely meal by his grandson…
Our last full day in St. Louis started out with a visit to
West County Center to meet the other half of the “In Laws” for coffee in the
mall at a little shop just outside Nordstrom’s.
So nice to catch up in person rather than emails. Another draw to St. Louis.. After we finished coffee we took a stroll
through Nordstrom’s marveling at what they are actually selling for clothing. You can pay money for those pants. And not just a little, either.. too old again
To keep our roll on, we visited a dear friend’s house, and
after more good conversation returned to near-by West County center for a nice
lunch at
We’d been there before on a previous visit to St. Louis so were familiar
with the classic Italian theme
And food. I waffled
a long time and for some reason settled on a chopped Chicken salad. And indeed, it was
The other dishes at the table were very enjoyable, as was
the company.
So kind of tuckered out, we headed back to the motel for a
rest before capping off St. Louis with that lovely meal at Stone Soup
Cottage. (See “a tale of two meals” for
a detailed accounting of a meal that will remain in the top XXX of our
experience. Plus the fact that we could
share it with the FOJTE’s..
So reluctantly we bid adieu to TE, and pointed the MOMSTER
further west to the home of TY
Okay, enough for this leg, we’ll pick up further adventures
in Kansas City (here I come, etc.,) and see if we need to
DFD
Sad Update: we just had a call from a long time friend in St. Louis that his wife has finally lost a battle with cancer, and we will be going to the service, so this will go dark again for a bit.
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